


we're a lethal combination (guilty by association)

by sandpapersnowman



Series: ACEE: Preacher Season 3 [1]
Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: F/M, Holding Hands, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Tags Contain Spoilers, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-30 23:59:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15107492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandpapersnowman/pseuds/sandpapersnowman
Summary: Cassidy knows Jesseisn'tagainst it in general, so he just doesn't understand why Jesse is against it forthem.(Spoiler alert: he's not.)





	we're a lethal combination (guilty by association)

**Author's Note:**

> title bastardized from the wombats' [Lethal Combination](https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/wombats/lethalcombination.html)
> 
> "havent you started three different seasons of shows where you're gonna do a fic every episode" yeah but i have a new writing program and watching it live gives me a whole week to crank something out so! Stay Tuned, Hopefully!

Tulip has been still for hours, and then, suddenly, she's just... Breathing again.

No sitting straight up, no groan being risen from the dead --  _the gasp_ , that's there, and the wide, uncertain eyes, but overall, she comes back to life almost... Peacefully.

Jesse tucks his head against her and thanks God, and Cassidy wants to do the same. He knows they both want to kiss her, and, really, it's only  _Jesse's_  problems keeping them from both enveloping her and thanking God together. It'd be one thing if Jesse wasn't comfortable with that lifestyle, but Cassidy's seen him reading progressive, tell-all magazine articles about  _trios_ and _polyamory_ and _mish-mashed three-person relationships_  during convenience store casings, and there's never horror or disgust in his eyes.

If anything, all Cassidy can see is curiosity. Maybe, if he squints, maybe even  _love_. And each time, he's watched Tulip catch Jesse, smile at him, and then shoot a knowing smile to Cassidy, too.

Tulip and him had never talked about it, but they never needed to. They're both aware of the looks Jesse gives them both, fond and longing and torn, and the only one unaware of the looks they both give Jesse in return is  _Jesse._

When she starts breathing again, she looks over to Cassidy like she wants to reach out and beckon him in, have him kneel next to Jesse like he'd never  _not_ belonged there. She looks sad that only Jesse can sob over her now, happy tears and resulting snot leaving wet marks on her already-ruined dress (because, realistically, it's going to be burned and thrown out after everything it's been through today).

Tulip dying was awful and traumatic and Cassidy will never let it happen again. He'd rather incapacitate Jesse and turn him too than let her die again, and he  _will_  if it comes to that.

(There  _certainly_  isn't a pleasant ache in his heart when he thinks about the three of them sticking out eternity together, either.)

Nothing good came from Tulip's death, but the unspoken question between them all seems a lot more pressing to get around to  _asking_.

He and Tulip had gone to bed, needing time together while Jesse spoke with Marie. The unspoken things take up most of the space between them, every question of what they should do next laid out between them impassably, but there's a crack just wide enough for them to twine their fingertips together and then both pass out after the stress of the day.

He'd been sure he'd get yelled at by Jesse in the morning, cuddling with  _his_  girlfriend even if the lines have sort of gone fuzzy.

He's surprised, but not disappointed, when he finds that Jesse crammed himself between the two of them at some point in the night.

Their hands still mesh together, carefully rearranged over Jesse so each of them is holding his hip against their palm. Jesse's facing away from Cassidy, toward Tulip -- rationalized in Jesse's mind as either needing to see Tulip, not wanting to be face to face with Cassidy, or both, and that crawling under their linked hands was just to keep from disturbing either of them. He thinks it's pretty fitting that Jesse has become the literal, physical  _thing between them_ rather than the usual, just-figurative thing between them, but he won't comment on that until  _much_  further in the future.

"I don't want you to be unhappy," Jesse whispers, still turned away, and Cassidy freezes as he realizes him and Tulip are talking.

"I'm not unhappy," she promises him. "Just like you're not unhappy, either."

God, Cassidy can  _hear_ the frown Jesse just pulled, he can practically see it through the back of his head. Partly confused, but  _mostly offended._

"What's  _that_ supposed to mean?" he asks.

There's a gentle pull on his fingers when Tulip shrugs, reminding him that even though Tulip is awake, neither of them has done anything about Cassidy's hand  _also_ being on Jesse's hip. Cassidy still stays 'asleep'.

"You know what it means," Tulip says, quiet and knowing. "There is  _nothing_ Godlyleft in your life, and there was never much to begin with, sweetheart," she continues.

"That's not true," he tries to protest, but Tulip's hand slips out of his, and soft rustling closer to his face sounds like she's cupped the side of Jesse's face.

It leaves Cassidy's hand limp over Jesse's side, flat and warm from his skin, and Jesse  _doesn't move_.

"We both want him," Tulip whispers. There's a soft, wet sound, and Cassidy feels his face heat realizing they're kissing so close to him. Kissing while  _talking_ about him, about maybe him becoming officially part of  _them_. "So why don't we  _have_ him?"

He hears Jesse take his next breath shaky and uncertain, muffled like Tulip is talking right against his mouth and kissing him when she's not speaking.

"It's not --"

"It is," she cuts him off. "No more of this."

"What if he doesn't want that?"

Tulip sighs, and Cassidy almost drops his still, sleeping disguise to sigh with her, mirrored exasperation at Jesse's own continued obliviousness.

"Baby, you let me die and he didn't kill you," she reminds him. "If he doesn't love us both, I don't know  _what_ he wants."

There's strained silence, Jesse no doubt wanting to beg for her forgiveness again.

"I promise, Jesse." There's another soft kiss, and her hand trails back down his side and over Cassidy's. "It's going to be so much more than fine."

Jesse laughs quietly and kisses her again.

"You have to bring it up," he says. "And I... I can't be in the room when you ask him," he clarifies.

"Done," she agrees. "Big baby."

Jesse kisses her again, leaning into it far enough her and Cassidy's hands barely slides over his hip, and he sighs.

"I should get out of bed," he mumbles. "Just in case."

"Stay," Tulip breathes. "He's fine. He'd understand even if he didn't want us too."

Cassidy smiles at that; even if his feelings for them were  _only_  platonic and Jesse had wedged himself in here, he absolutely would have understood, yeah. They both almost lost her, and both needed to be close, and it's not like there was any space on Tulip's other side, anyway. Cassidy loving them both so much it makes his dead heart pound just makes it that much more touching that Jesse would put himself here.

Jesus, they're making him sappy.

"Okay," Jesse agrees. "I'll stay."

-

Cassidy is still awake when Jesse's breathing evens out. His arm is  _killing_  him, but he'd rather lose the whole damn thing than move.

Small fingers squeeze his, and for the first time, without worrying about it, he squeezes back.


End file.
